Chhattisgarh: Bail denied to 7 Bajrang Dal workers held for vandalising Christmas decor at mall

A court in Raipur on Monday denied bail to seven Bajrang Dal workers arrested for allegedly vandalising Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Chhattisgarh’s capital city on December 24, The Indian Express reported.

The seven men belonging to the Hindutva group had been arrested on Saturday.

Videos of the vandalisation on December 24 posted on social media show the mob, armed with sticks, barging into the city’s Magneto Mall and destroying decorations a day ahead of Christmas.

A case was filed at the Telibandha Police Station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to trespassing, intentionally causing damage to property, causing hurt, rioting and unlawful assembly.

After their arrest on Saturday, the seven men were produced before a magistrate’s court and sent to judicial custody, The Indian Express reported. They were produced again before the court on Monday, and were denied bail.

The vandalisation on December 24 occurred on the day a Hindutva group called for a state-wide strike to protest the allegedly illegal religious conversions in Chhattisgarh. The call for the bandh followed communal clashes on December 16 and 17 over the Christian burial of a person in the Bade Teoda village in the Kanker district.

Fresh violence was reported from the village on December 18 when a mob armed with sticks breached the police barricades and entered the village.

Several other incidents of attacks on Christians...

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